Succulents and More™

Last Sunday my wife and I visited our friend Tim in San Francisco. An accomplished painter, he had an open studio at a space he shares with a few other artists. His studio is a 10-minute walk from the BART station at 24th and Mission. It’s just a few blocks, and yet I saw many succulents in front of apartments, along the sidewalk, in median strips. San Francisco isn’t exactly the kind of climate most succulents thrive in. Typically, temperatures are in the 60s, often lower. Mild for sure, and good enough for a lot of temperate plants, but too cool for many succulents to thrive. But because they need so little, especially regular watering, many city dwellers gravitate towards them. Of course I’m anthropomorphizing, but some of the succulents I saw on the short walk to our friend’s studio looked like they would rather be someplace else. Still, they’re hanging on, providing pops of green where most other plants would struggle. Potted aloes with a few feet of trunk... ...those aren’t commo...

Not every garden project has to be a major undertaking. In fact, most are small, completed quickly, but with immediate impact. This post is a good example. The area I’m talking about is next to the front door, so we walk by it multiple times a day. I’ve been low-grade dissatisfied with it for some time, but I didn’t have any specific plans. I don’t know what possessed me, but earlier this week, I decided to rip out the two out-of-control clumps at the base of the largest of our three ponytail palms ( Beaucarnea recurvata ):  Oscularia caulescens (top) and Aloe × spinosissima (bottom). The Hechtia argentea on the right is one of my favorites, and it won’t go anywhere. Oscularia caulescens (top) and Aloe × spinosissima (bottom) at the base of the largest of our three ponytail palms ( Beaucarnea recurvata ) A slightly different angle: A closer view: Ground-level view: For comparison, this what this spot looked like in March 2022: March 2022 In the 4½ years since the photo above w...

It’s official: Summer is over. The days are getting shorter, but to me, the most obvious sign of fall is the quality of the light: In the summer, the light is glaring and harsh. At this time of year, it’s noticeably warmer because the sun is lower in the sky. I complain about the summer and the heat all the time during the summer , but at the cusp of fall, when summer is slipping away, I don’t want to let it go. Looking at the forecast for next week, it appears summer isn’t quite ready to fade away either: temperatures in the low to mid-90s for a solid week, starting tomorrow. Sorry for the random introduction, but here’s the late-September edition of This and that . BRUNSRYLLIS FLOWERING FOR THE FIRST TIME No, “brunsryllis” isn’t a typo, nor is it a rare tropical disease. It’s a hybrid between two South African bulbs, Brunsvigia litoralis and Amaryllis belladonna . I’ve never seen a Brunsvigia litoralis in real life ( it looks like this ), but Amaryllis belladonna is the common nake...